Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Orientalism / Sinology - General, grade: 2, University of Vienna (Sinologie), language: English, abstract: China and India, two countries that 50 years ago were at about the same stage of economic development, are now both at very different levels, with China being far ahead of India. To better understand the reforms and development in both countries, a brief overview of the history of the two countries is given first. Then a critical incident, that should disturb the relationship of both countries for many years to follow and that also had economical consequences, namely the 1962 border war, is covered. The journey is then continued in the mid 70s, when China started its reforms, later on India did so as well. Neither does this paper want to go into too much detail nor cover the whole series of events taking place in each of the countries, but rather focus on the crucial moments of both countries' history that are of relevance for an understanding of their performance nowadays.
The authors have produced an outstanding book on economic reforms in China and India. . . This book is a wealth of information on this crucial issue, thus filling this important gap in the literature on economic reform, and also adding more knowledge to the literature on the history of economic development processes in China and India. . . [this book] will be of interest to both scholars of the economic reforms and those more generally interested in the social political changes occurring there. Tulus Tambunan, Journal of Asian Business Economists Chai and Roy have produced a well-written, properly documented study of the comparative development of India and China over the last 50 years. . . The book will be useful to graduate students in Asian studies and economic development. Policy makers in other developing countries can also benefit from this account of the experiences of two major emerging economies under different economic and political systems. Recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. J.S. Uppal, Choice Recent acceleration of the Indian economic growth rate from 6 to 8 per cent has sparked worldwide speculation that India is about to catch up with China and become another Asian miracle economy. Economic Reform in China and India examines this prospect, reviewing the development strategies pursued by the two countries over the last 50 years in general and exploring recently introduced reform measures in particular. The culmination of many years of research by specialists in these economies, this book assesses the performance of China and India at both macro and sectoral levels (including economic, social, political and environmental aspects). It illustrates the reasons why China has outperformed India in the past and identifies the obstacles that India will face in its attempts to catch up with China. Providing solutions for China and India that can be applied to other developing countries, this book will be invaluable for researchers, academics and students focussing on economic development and Asian studies. It will also receive much attention from investors and government analysts interested in the strategic implications of the emergence of the two Asian economic giants.
Prior to the initiation of economic reforms and trade liberalization 36 years ago, China maintained policies that kept the economy very poor, stagnant, centrally-controlled, vastly inefficient, and relatively isolated from the global economy. Since opening up to foreign trade and investment and implementing free market reforms in 1979, China has been among the world's fastest-growing economies, with real annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaging nearly 10% through 2016. In recent years, China has emerged as a major global economic power. It is now the world's largest economy (on a purchasing power parity basis), manufacturer, merchandise trader, and holder of foreign exchange reserves.The global economic crisis that began in 2008 greatly affected China's economy. China's exports, imports, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows declined, GDP growth slowed, and millions of Chinese workers reportedly lost their jobs. The Chinese government responded by implementing a $586 billion economic stimulus package and loosening monetary policies to increase bank lending. Such policies enabled China to effectively weather the effects of the sharp global fall in demand for Chinese products, but may have contributed to overcapacity in several industries and increased debt by Chinese firms and local government. China's economy has slowed in recent years. Real GDP growth has slowed in each of the past six years, dropping from 10.6% in 2010 to 6.7% in 2016, and is projected to slow to 5.7% by 2022.The Chinese government has attempted to steer the economy to a "new normal" of slower, but more stable and sustainable, economic growth. Yet, concerns have deepened in recent years over the health of the Chinese economy. On August 11, 2015, the Chinese government announced that the daily reference rate of the renminbi (RMB) would become more "market-oriented." Over the next three days, the RMB depreciated against the dollar and led to charges that China's goal was to boost exports to help stimulate the economy (which some suspect is in worse shape than indicated by official Chinese economic statistics). Concerns over the state of the Chinese economy appear to have often contributed to volatility in global stock indexes in recent years.The ability of China to maintain a rapidly growing economy in the long run will likely depend largely on the ability of the Chinese government to implement comprehensive economic reforms that more quickly hasten China's transition to a free market economy; rebalance the Chinese economy by making consumer demand, rather than exporting and fixed investment, the main engine of economic growth; boost productivity and innovation; address growing income disparities; and enhance environmental protection. The Chinese government has acknowledged that its current economic growth model needs to be altered and has announced several initiatives to address various economic challenges. In November 2013, the Communist Party of China held the Third Plenum of its 18th Party Congress, which outlined a number of broad policy reforms to boost competition and economic efficiency. For example, the communique stated that the market would now play a "decisive" role in allocating resources in the economy. At the same time, however, the communique emphasized the continued important role of the state sector in China's economy. In addition, many foreign firms have complained that the business climate in China has worsened in recent years. Thus, it remains unclear how committed the Chinese government is to implementing new comprehensive economic reforms.China's economic rise has significant implications for the United States and hence is of major interest to Congress. This report provides background on China's economic rise; describes its current economic structure; identifies the challenges China faces to maintain economic growth; and discusses the challenges, opportunities, and implications of China's economic rise.
This book and its companion volume offer a better understanding of the lessons that Indian policymakers can learn from China’s economic experience over the last 40 years. The aim of the two books together is to evaluate China’s incremental reforms and how these reforms have impacted on the Chinese economy, based on a classical rather than from a neoclassical perspective using a case study method. In this second volume, the author examines knowledge creation, knowledge spillovers and entrepreneurship across both China and India. The comparative study places the theoretical analysis of the previous volume in a real-world context of how China’s economic reforms since 1978 have actually impacted on the country. Its real-world findings of the Chinese economy present a complete perspective on China’s lessons for India as well as at a global context.
The social sciences have been heavily influenced by modernization theory, focusing on issues of economic growth, political development and social change, in order to develop a predictive model of linear progress for developing countries following a Western prototype. Under this hegemonic paradigm of development the world tends to get divided into simplistic binary oppositions between the ‘West’ and the ‘rest’, ‘us’ and ‘them’ and ‘self’ and ‘other’. Proposing to shift the discussion on what constitutes the ‘Other’ as opposed to the ‘Self’ from philosophy and cultural studies to the social sciences, this book explores how the structural asymmetries existing between Western discourses and the realities of the non-Western world manifest themselves in the ideas, institutions and socio-political practices of India and China, and in how far they shape the social scientist’s understanding of their discipline in general. It provides a counter-narrative by revealing the relativity of geographies, and by showing that the conventional presentation of core elements of the Asian socio-political set-up as ‘aberrations’ from the Western models fails to acknowledge their inherent strategic character of adapting Western concepts to meet local requirements. Drawing on multiple disciplines, concepts and contexts in India and China, the book makes a valuable contribution to the theory and practice of politics, as well as to International and Asian Studies.
This book and its companion volume offer a better understanding of the lessons that Indian policymakers can learn from China’s economic experience over the last 40 years. The aim of the two books together is to evaluate China’s incremental reforms and how these reforms have impacted on the Chinese economy, based on a classical rather than from a neoclassical perspective using a case study method. In this first volume, the author examines India’s emergence from socialism and central planning as being in sharp contrast to China’s experience, and considers how we might compare the institutional difference between the countries. It also covers a theoretical grounding for the comparison of the two largest populated countries in the world, which will be taken up by the second volume.
China and India already rank among the world's largest economies, and each is moving rapidly toward the center stage of the global economy. In this process, different priorities have been placed on economic reforms over the past two decades?China taking a more outward strategy and India, until recently, a more inward one. Can they continue to rank among the fastest-expanding economies? This volume addresses that issue, highlighting what has worked and what more needs to be done to ensure sustained rapid economic growth and poverty reduction. Addressing the two countries' recent experiences with growth and reform, this book provides important insights for other developing economies. For more information on how to purchase this title, please visit http://www.palgrave.com/economics/imf/index.asp.
China and India already rank among the world's largest economies, and each is moving rapidly toward the center stage of the global economy. In this process, different priorities have been placed on economic reforms over the past two decades?China taking a more outward strategy and India, until recently, a more inward one. Can they continue to rank among the fastest-expanding economies? This volume addresses that issue, highlighting what has worked and what more needs to be done to ensure sustained rapid economic growth and poverty reduction. Addressing the two countries recent experiences with growth and reform, this book provides important insights for other developing economies. For more information on how to purchase this title, please visit http://www.palgrave.com/economics/imf/index.asp.
A comparative look at the astonishing economic rise of modern China and India The recent economic rise of China and India has attracted a great deal of attention—and justifiably so. Together, the two countries account for one-fifth of the global economy and are projected to represent a full third of the world's income by 2025. Yet, many of the views regarding China and India's market reforms and high growth have been tendentious, exaggerated, or oversimplified. Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay scrutinizes the phenomenal rise of both nations, and demolishes the myths that have accumulated around the economic achievements of these two giants in the last quarter century. Exploring the challenges that both countries must overcome to become true leaders in the international economy, Pranab Bardhan looks beyond short-run macroeconomic issues to examine and compare China and India's major policy changes, political and economic structures, and current general performance. Bardhan investigates the two countries' economic reforms, each nation's pattern and composition of growth, and the problems afflicting their agricultural, industrial, infrastructural, and financial sectors. He considers how these factors affect China and India's poverty, inequality, and environment, how political factors shape each country's pattern of burgeoning capitalism, and how significant poverty reduction in both countries is mainly due to domestic factors—not global integration, as most would believe. He shows how authoritarianism has distorted Chinese development while democratic governance in India has been marred by severe accountability failures. Full of valuable insights, Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay provides a nuanced picture of China and India's complex political economy at a time of startling global reconfiguration and change.
